In a field of medicine, pathology, or the like, there has been proposed a system that digitizes an image of a cell, a tissue, an organ, or the like of a living body, that is obtained by an optical microscope, to examine the tissue or the like by a doctor or a pathologist or diagnose a patient based on the digitized image.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-37250 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a method in which an image optically obtained by a microscope is digitized by a video camera with a CCD (charge coupled device), a digital signal is input to a control computer system, and the image is visualized on a monitor. A pathologist performs examination while watching the image displayed on the monitor (see, for example, paragraphs [0027] and [0028] and FIG. 5 of Patent Document 1). Such a system is generally referred to as a “virtual microscope”.
Further, some virtual microscope systems are capable of displaying lists of thumbnail images, which are reduced-size images of original images (see, for example, paragraph [0053] and FIG. 5G of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-519443) (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 2). A user can select an image to which the user pays attention based on the list of the thumbnail images, to be displayed.
Meanwhile, in a case of displaying images for especially pathological diagnosis, in many cases, shapes of slide specimens from which the images are obtained are similar to one another, and original images are obtained from slides stained in a similar manner. Therefore, at the time of displaying the list of thumbnail images, in a case where the thumbnail images are reduced in size, a larger number of thumbnail images can be displayed on a list. However, in a case where the thumbnail images are too much reduced in size, a user cannot recognize the thumbnail images from one another.
Further, in a case where the size of the thumbnail image is smaller, a user cannot recognize a portion in the thumbnail image in which the user is interested. Specifically, in the field of pathological diagnosis, although the size of the original image is extremely large (several tens of Kpixel×several tens of Kpixel), an area having pathological characteristics in which a user such as a pathologist is interested is sometimes extremely smaller than the original image (for example, several thousands of pixel×several thousands of pixel).
Therefore, displaying a larger number of thumbnail images on a list and visibility is in a relationship of trade-off. So it is required that thumbnail images be resizable as necessary.
Meanwhile, some virtual microscope systems have an annotation function. In the annotation function, with regard to a portion in which a user is interested, for example, a portion which may have a disorder, position information and metadata such as character information are input, and the position information and the metadata such as character information are displayed on an original image in an overlapped manner. By applying the annotation function to the list of thumbnail images, even if the size of the thumbnail images is small, a user can recognize the portion in which a user is interested.
However, in the case where the position information and the character information are displayed on the list of thumbnail images through the annotation function, too much information is displayed on a display screen, and visibility of each thumbnail image may be adversely affected. In such a case, the intended purpose of a list of thumbnail images, that is, selection of a desired thumbnail image by a user, cannot be achieved.
In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, it is desirable to provide an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program therefor capable of resizing a thumbnail image of an image obtained by a microscope and capable of changing display modes of metadata displayed together with the thumbnail image without adversely affecting visibility of the thumbnail image.